


while you're waiting

by LiveLaughLovex



Category: Rush (TV 2008)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, F/M, Gen, Light Angst, Male Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:54:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26964775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiveLaughLovex/pseuds/LiveLaughLovex
Summary: Grace is placed on bedrest early in her third trimester. She thinks this is because her doctor's a quack. Everyone else thinks it'snotbecause of that, but most of them are too scared of her to actually say that to her face.
Relationships: Brendan Joshua & Lawson Blake, Grace Barry & Lawson Blake, Grace Barry/Brendan Joshua
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	while you're waiting

**Author's Note:**

> Grace is Lawson's little sister; you'll never make me see it any differently.

“G’day, Gracie,” Lawson greeted jovially, grinning in amusement when the Senior Constable turned her head to offer him the most irritated glare he’d ever been on the receiving end of. “How ya goin’, then?” 

“I have been stuck in this bloody bed for a _week_ now, Lawson,” she growled, tossing the book on her bedside table at the wall with an angry scoff. “A _week_! And on top of that, I have another _eight_ left after it. _What_ , exactly, am I supposed to do in all that time?” 

“Rest?” the senior sergeant suggested hopefully, artfully dodging the plastic spoon she tossed his way with a laugh. “Why’re you throwing things at me? That _is_ what the doc told you to do, isn’t it? She told you to take it easy?”

Grace huffed, crossing her arms petulantly over her chest. “You’re getting your intel from Josh.” 

“Gracie, you’re in hospital, confined to a bed,” he pointed out, amused. “I don’t need your husband to tell me you’re meant to be resting.” 

“I can’t rest for _eight weeks_ , Lawson. I’ll go mad.” She shuddered at the thought. “Anyway, that doc doesn’t know what she’s talking about.” 

“All those degrees on her wall would suggest she does, I think.” Lawson considered her. “You doing alright, Gracie?” 

“I just told you…” she began irritably. 

“Other than the boredom, I mean. You doin’ okay with everything else?”

“I’m fine,” she mumbled, gaze dropping to her lap as she nervously twisted the thin, flimsy fabric of her hospital-issued blanket in her hands. “I’m just - I don’t know, really,” she admitted, looking up at Lawson with a self-deprecating smile. “I love this baby, Lawson. I really, _really_ do.” 

“I know,” he assured her, dark eyes filled with brotherly concern as he waited for her to continue. 

“I’m scared,” she confessed, voice little more than a whisper. “All the time, I’m just, I’m _terrified_.” She scoffed at herself. “I’ve had guns waved in my face, more than once, and yet the thing that scares me most is having a baby, which is, what, the most natural thing a woman can do, right? Maybe my family’s right. I don’t see things the way I should. I’m not _normal_.” 

“Who’d _want_ you to be?” Lawson asked rhetorically, grinning when it was enough to coax a tiny smile from the woman. “I mean, babies, they’re… they’re pretty terrifying things, Gracie. Dom’ll tell you that much. More terrifying than guns, even.”

“Oh, you suppose they are?” Grace retorted, amused. 

“Well, chances aren’t good that someone’s going to wave a gun in your face for eighteen years,” Lawson pointed out rationally, leaning back in his seat, eyeing her worriedly. “You talked to Josh about any of this?” 

She shook her head, gazing briefly up at the ceiling before looking over at him. “You don’t have to tell me I should be, Lawson, if that’s what you’re gearing up to. I already know I should be. It’s just…” She shrugged helplessly. “He worries so much already. About me, about the baby. I don’t want him to be so focused on what’s going on here that something happens to him out there. I’d never forgive myself if it did.” 

“Gracie,” he began gently. “Josh was worried about you a long time before this all happened. It’s a side effect of being so mad for you, I’d reckon. You’ve gotta take care of yourself, though. Your husband can handle himself out there. You know that. You’ve seen it with your own eyes. There isn’t any point in you worrying yourself over something that hasn’t happened, or worrying about how much _Josh_ is worrying about you. It’s not gonna make him worry any less, we both know it won’t, and all it’ll do for _you_ is raise your blood pressure, which is the opposite of what you want to happen now, isn’t it?” 

“Yeah,” she agreed, begrudgingly. “It is.” 

“Alright, then.” He grinned at her. “You two started thinking about names, yet?”

“Well, we’ve _tried_.” Grace made a face. “Josh suggested the name _Wilfred_ the other day.”

The senior sergeant stared at her like she’d lost her mind. “ _Wilfred_? What, does he hate the poor sprog already? He’s not even met the boy yet.”

“Wilfred’s a family name, you prick,” Josh remarked with no real heat, making his way into the room. He bent down to press a kiss to Grace’s forehead, then dropped a bag from her favorite café on the table in front of her. “Sorry to leave you with the riffraff for so long, love. Line was longer than I thought it’d be.”

“ _I’m_ the riffraff?” Lawson questioned, incredulous. “ _Me_?”

“That’s what I said, isn’t it?” the sergeant grinned, claiming the room’s only remaining chair and pulling it closer to his wife’s bedside. “And before you ask, Lawson, the answer’s _no_. We’re not naming the boy after you.”

The commanding officer held his hands up in surrender. “Look, all I’m saying is, he’ll get shoved around a lot less on the playground with a name like Lawson than with one like Wilfred, alright?”

“He’s not going to get shoved around on the playground at all.” Grace’s eyes widened in concern. “He’s not going to get shoved around on the playground, is he?” she asked her husband, slightly panicked by the mere prospect.

“No, love,” Josh assured her, biting back a smile. “He’s not gonna get shoved around on the playground. He’ll be fine, even if we name him…”

“Darling, I’m sure your great-grandfather was a wonderful man. I’m _still_ not naming the boy Wilfred.”

He nodded in defeat, still grinning as he glanced over at Lawson. “I’ve been outvoted, it seems.”

“And it’s a good thing, too,” the senior sergeant laughed. “Ah, sorry.” He grabbed his ringing phone from his pocket, greeting Leon and signaling them to wait for a moment while he listened in on whatever was going on that their resident tech whiz felt he needed to be part of. “Right, yeah. I’ll be there in a jiff. No, no, it’s fine, Leon. I can get there myself, yeah. Alright. Well, then, tell Kerry I’ll see her there, won’t ya?” The expression on his face made it clear that, had Lawson Blake been literally any other person on the planet, he would’ve been rolling his eyes in that instant. He ended the call, then glanced over at the two of them with an apologetic smile. “Duty calls. I’ll stop in and see ya tomorrow morning though, Gracie, if that’s alright.”

“Of course,” Grace said easily, smiling as he leaned down to quickly kiss her cheek and then exchanged a quick but firm handshake with Josh before bidding them one final farewell and heading for the exit.

“So,” Josh began quietly, glancing over at her, “you talk about what you needed to talk about?” He smiled reassuringly when Grace eyed him hesitantly, unsure of how to answer. “I get it, Gracie. You don’t have to tell me every thought or worry that runs through that head of yours. You need to talk about it with someone, though. It’s not good to hold it all in.”

Grace exhaled slowly. “We talked,” she assured him quietly.

“And you’re alright, now?” he checked.

She considered the question for a moment, then nodded once, offering a genuinely warm smile as she leaned back against the pile of pillows behind her head. “Yes,” she reassured him, truly meaning it. “Yes, everything is just fine.”


End file.
